@Cycloptichorn,
But Ionus has been arguing that the average isn't really the average Cyclo.
Of course he doesn't realize that "average" is the same as the midpoint..
What Ionus is trying to argue is that curve of warming and cooling during the day doesn't average exactly the same as the average of high/low. In fact Ionus argued that you can't determine if warming is occurring by simply looking at the high/low. I pointed out that I could determine it was warmer on a summer day with high/low of say 25/16 vs a winter day high/low of -4/-12. This caused Ionus to call me all sort of names will never admitting that the summer day MUST be warmer.
Which leads us back to what he thinks was a clever argument. He thinks that he can avoid the statistics that would show him wrong and no one will notice.
Yes, 2 given days with high/low averages that are equal may not have the same average with temperatures taken once per hour, but it ignores the fact that temperature is a result of energy being put into the system somewhere. The earth's atmosphere is constantly moving so energy moves from one part to another. However, the amount of energy put out by the sun is fairly constant. That means the total energy available is fairly constant.
Yes, one part of the world may record more temperature than would be possible from the energy received in that area. But in order for that the energy has to come from another part of the globe.
That means that averaging every part of the earth will result in a fairly accurate TOTAL reading using only the high/lows. It's simple physics. There is no secret source of energy. There is no secret heat sink. The earth doesn't change enough to make his argument statistically significant. He is throwing **** in the air and hoping no one notices how much it stinks. He is making the same argument that okie is trying to make, that errors compound when in reality enough readings cause them to become insignificant.
